The present disclosure relates generally to job scheduling and distributed execution in a network of multi-functional devices (MFDs). In particular, the present disclosure relates to decentralized job scheduling and distributed execution in a network of MFDs using historical information based on a local view and/or a global view of several device or network related attributes (such as performance of nodes, reliability, configuration, etc.) of the MFD grid.
Some jobs submitted to an MFD, such as large optical character recognition (OCR) jobs, are very resource and time consuming and often take several minutes to complete, particularly for complex documents. The MFD receiving the job may not have the best resources to complete the job relative to other MFDs that it is networked to. In some environments, users initiate large OCR jobs and simply walk away, returning several minutes later to see if the job has been completed. In other more secure environments, users are required to authenticate themselves with the MFD before scanning sensitive documents and must remain at the MFD until the job is finished, causing frustration and potentially wasting valuable time.